Maine sees record-high 753 new coronavirus cases and 8 new deaths

By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated.

Maine marked yet another record high with 753 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday and eight more deaths.

Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 20,491. Of those, 17,695 have been confirmed positive, while 2,796 were classified as “probable cases,” according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency revised Tuesday’s cumulative total to 19,738, down from 19,743, meaning there was an increase of 748 over the previous day’s report. As the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some are determined to have not been the coronavirus, or coronavirus cases not involving Mainers. Those are removed from the state’s cumulative total. The Bangor Daily News reports on the number of new cases reported to the Maine CDC in the previous 24 hours, rather than the increase of daily cumulative cases.

An Androscoggin County resident, two Cumberland County residents, an Oxford County resident and four York County residents have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 311. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

New cases were reported in Androscoggin (60), Aroostook (27), Cumberland (183), Franklin (20), Hancock (8), Kennebec (39), Knox (12), Lincoln (9), Oxford (75), Penobscot (90), Piscataquis (1), Sagadahoc (14), Somerset (17), Waldo (6), Washington (18) and York (166) counties, state data show. Information about where an additional eight cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.

The seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 460.7, up from 431 a day ago, up from 434.1 a week ago and up from 187 a month ago.

Wednesday marked yet another new record for single-day increase in coronavirus cases, shattering the previous high — 613 — set just a week ago. It’s the second time new cases have risen above 600 and the seventh time in the past 10 days when they rose above 400.

Health officials have warned Mainers that “forceful and widespread” community transmission is being seen throughout the state. Every county is seeing high community transmission, which the Maine CDC defines as a case rate of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people.

There are two criteria for establishing community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not connected to either known cases or travel.

So far, 1,000 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Information about those currently hospitalized wasn’t immediately available.

Meanwhile, 155 more Mainers have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total reported recoveries to 11,039. That means there are at least 9,141 active confirmed and “probable” cases in the state, which is up from 8,556 on Tuesday.

Maine CDC data likely underestimate the true number of recoveries as investigators have struggled to keep up with the surge in virus transmission, making it difficult with them to follow up with previous cases to confirm recoveries. Instead, the Maine CDC is just releasing data on those recoveries directly reported to it. The underreported recoveries also affect the estimated number of likely active cases across the state.

A majority of the cases — 12,018 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.

As of Tuesday, there have been 1,100,636 negative test results out of 1,126,503 overall. About 2.2 percent of all tests have come back positive, the most recently available Maine CDC data show.

The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 6,110 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 90 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (2,333), Aroostook (459), Franklin (431), Hancock (484), Kennebec (1,524), Knox (319), Lincoln (255), Oxford (1,007), Penobscot (1,748), Piscataquis (101), Sagadahoc (323), Somerset (669), Waldo (353), Washington (324) and York (4,042) counties. Information about where an additional nine cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.

As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 18,237,191 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 322,849 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.